Safety in the air?

The airlines always claim that safety is their #1 focus. But on occasion they find it convenient to forget that focus.

On a recent flight, which was full, I was sitting just behind one of the doors. The seat qualifies as an exit seat, and I normally choose exit seats because of the extra leg room; but this particular seat is rather uncomfortable because of the slide extension of the door. The row in front is a full exit row, but only contains two seats.

As frequent travelers know, there are a number of criteria that passengers must meet in order to sit in the exit row. two of them concern the ability to assist in the event of an emergency, another is that the passenger should not need to use a seat belt extender. I was very surprised to see a extremely obese lady sitting down in the seat in front of me. During the boarding process, I heard one of the flight attendants explaining that they were not allowed to provide her with a seat belt extender, due to the seat being in the exit row.

I naively thought that she had asked for a more comfortable fit, as a fully extended normal seat belt might be a tight fit. However, as we taxied to the run way I noticed that she seemed to be un-belted in her seat. As we took off I looked more closely and noticed that she had indeed not fastened her belt. The picture above was taken as soon as the crew made the "you can use your electronic equipment" announcement, while the "Fasten Seat Belt" sign was still on. Throughout the flight, including a couple of patches of turbulence, the belt remained unfastened. Even during approach and landing, no belt.

I found this very unprofessional and irresponsible of the cabin crew to knowingly allow such a disregard for FAA rules. If we had had any severe turbulence, the woman could have been thrown out of her chair, possibly injuring herself and even surrounding passengers. I hate to think what might have happened if we had had a real emergency, such as an hard stop, where this huge bulk would have been catapulted into the row in front, probably collapsing the back of the seat onto the person sitting there. If we had needed to make a quick exit through the door, how long would it have taken for this person to move out and down the slide.

I appreciate that obese people have a right to travel, as much as anyone else, but the airline staff, ground and cabin crew should not have seated her in the exit row, a violation of FAA safety rules.

So next time you get bossed around on grounds of some safety rule, just remember that it just depends whether you are the unlucky one.